1 Samuel 6

The ark of the LORD stayed in the land of the Philistines for seven months.

1And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.

NoteThe ark was a gold-covered wooden chest, the most sacred object Israel possessed, normally kept out of sight in the inner room of the sanctuary. The Philistines had captured it in battle seven months earlier (chapters 4-5) and had suffered outbreaks of disease in each city they moved it to. The Philistines were a people settled in five cities on the coastal plain southwest of Israel, and Israel's main military rivals at this period.

2The Philistines called for their priests and their diviners. They asked, "What should we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its own place."

2And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.

NoteDiviners were religious specialists who read omens to work out what a god wanted or intended, the flight of birds, the markings on the liver of a sacrificed animal, the casting of lots. It was a recognized profession across the ancient Near East, and their advice here is offered as expert procedure, not guesswork.

3They answered, "If you send back the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty. Be sure to send something with it to pay for your guilt. Then you will be healed, and you will learn why his hand has not been lifted off you."

3And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.

NoteThe KJV "trespass offering" translates Hebrew *asham*, which is closer to compensation than to a gift: a payment made to settle a debt incurred by an offense, restitution with a penalty added. Sending the ark back "empty" would return the property without paying for the wrong. "His hand" is a standard idiom for a god's active power, and most often, as here, his power to strike.

4The Philistines asked, "What should we send back to him to pay for our guilt?" They answered, "Five gold tumors and five gold rats, one for each of the five Philistine rulers, because the same plague struck all of you and your rulers too.

4Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.

Note"Emerods" is an old English word for haemorrhoids or swellings; the Hebrew word means tumors or swellings on the body. Taken together with the rats, many readers have understood the plague as something like bubonic plague, though the text does not name a disease. The "lords" of the Philistines are *seranim*, a title used in the Bible only of these five rulers, one for each Philistine city; it is not the ordinary Hebrew word for lord and may be a Philistine term.

5So make models of your tumors and models of the rats that are ruining the land, and give honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will lift his hand off you, and off your gods, and off your land.

5Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

NoteMaking a model in precious metal of the affliction itself, and presenting it to the god held responsible, was a widely attested practice in the ancient world, the image both admits what the god has done and asks him to take it back. "Give glory to" a god is an idiom for publicly acknowledging his power and conceding that he was the one who acted.

6Why should you make yourselves stubborn, the way the Egyptians and Pharaoh made themselves stubborn? After God dealt harshly with them, they finally let the people go, and the people left.

6Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

NoteA reference to the exodus story, in which Pharaoh repeatedly refused to release the Israelites from Egypt until a series of disasters forced him to. The Philistine priests are pictured as knowing Israel's national story and drawing a practical lesson from it: the ones who held out paid for it.

7So now build a new cart. Take two milk cows that have never had a yoke on them, and hitch them to the cart, but take their calves away from them and shut them up at home.

7Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them:

NoteThe instructions are designed as a controlled test. Cows still nursing calves, with the calves shut up away from them, will pull hard toward home; cows that have never worn a yoke pull erratically and do not know a route. If such animals walk a straight road into Israelite territory, the result cannot be put down to training or instinct. A cart never used before and animals never worked before were also the usual requirement for anything put to sacred use.

8Then take the ark of the LORD and set it on the cart. Put the gold objects you are sending him for your guilt in a chest beside the ark. Then send it off and let it go.

8And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.

Note"Coffer" is simply the KJV word for a box or chest.

9Watch it. If it goes up the road toward its own land, toward Beth-shemesh, then the LORD is the one who brought this great trouble on us. But if it does not, then we will know it was not his hand that struck us, and that what happened to us was only chance."

9And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us.

Note"Coast" in 1611 English meant border or territory, not seashore; the sense is the ark's own home ground. Beth-shemesh was an Israelite town in the Sorek valley, the nearest Israelite settlement along the road running inland from Philistine Ekron.

10The men did this. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and shut the calves up at home.

10And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:

11They set the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest holding the gold rats and the models of their tumors.

11And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods.

12The cows went straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh. They stayed on the main road, mooing as they went, and did not turn off to the right or to the left. The Philistine rulers followed behind them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

12And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh.

NoteThe lowing matters to the story: the cows were bellowing for the calves shut up behind them while still walking steadily away from them, against their own instinct.

13The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting their wheat down in the valley. They looked up, saw the ark, and were glad to see it.

13And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

14The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there, next to a large stone. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and offered the cows to the LORD as a burnt offering.

14And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD.

NoteA burnt offering was an animal killed and burned whole on the fire, with no part kept back to be eaten, the most complete form of offering. Breaking up the cart for firewood follows the same logic: an object that had carried the ark was not put back to ordinary use.

15The Levites lifted down the ark of the LORD and the chest that was with it, which held the gold objects, and they set them on the large stone. That same day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made other sacrifices to the LORD.

15And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD.

NoteThe Levites were members of the tribe of Levi, who were assigned responsibility for carrying and handling the ark and the sacred equipment. Beth-shemesh was one of the towns allotted to them, which is why some were on hand.

16When the five Philistine rulers saw this, they went back to Ekron that same day.

16And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

17These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent back to the LORD to pay for their guilt: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron.

17And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

NoteThe five cities named here were the Philistine heartland on the coastal plain, each with its own ruler: Ashdod, Gaza and Ashkelon on the coast, Gath and Ekron further inland toward Israelite territory.

18The gold rats matched the number of all the Philistine towns that belonged to the five rulers, both the walled cities and the open country villages. This reached as far as the large stone where they set down the ark of the LORD. That stone is still there today in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.

18And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the LORD: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite.

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is difficult and translators divide over it. The word rendered "stone" can also be read as *abel*, "meadow," and it is unclear whether the phrase is still counting villages or is marking out a place name. "To this day" is the narrator writing from a much later point, pointing to a landmark his own readers could still go and look at.

19But God struck down men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down fifty thousand and seventy men, and the people mourned, because the LORD had struck them with such a great blow.

19And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.

NoteThe number is a long-standing textual problem. The Hebrew reads, awkwardly, "seventy men, fifty thousand men"; several Hebrew manuscripts and early translations have only seventy, and fifty thousand would far exceed the population of a small farming town. The KJV adds the two figures together; most modern translations print seventy. The Hebrew verb translated "looked into" can also mean simply looked at or gazed upon, the ark was normally kept covered, and even those who carried it were not to see its contents.

20The men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who can stand in front of the LORD, this holy God? And where should the ark go from here?"

20And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?

Note"Stand before" is an idiom for surviving in someone's presence, and also for serving them. The question is practical as well as fearful: they are asking who can safely keep this thing, and where it should be sent next.

21So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim with this message: "The Philistines have brought the ark of the LORD back. Come down and take it up to your town."

21And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.

NoteKiriath-jearim lay roughly nine miles east of Beth-shemesh, up in the hill country on the way toward Jerusalem. "Come down... and take it up" is literal geography: the messengers' town is higher than the valley where the ark now sits.